1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of speech application code generation and more particularly to predefining and implementing an interface that allows a programmer or application developer to select one of a variety of styles in order to manage standard catch events.
2. Description of the Related Art
Programmers of interactive speech applications are often faced with the challenge of managing standard catch events, where standard catch events are defined as user requests for help, a non-input entry, in which the system does not receive any user response, or a non-matching entry, in which the user entry is not understood, that may occur during a given dialog turn. A large amount of source code is dedicated to managing and preparing audio responses to these catch events. Typical practice is for a programmer to reuse existing code by copying the code and pasting it where required throughout a new application. While this is a tedious process, the process becomes even more time-consuming when the programmer does not simply copy and paste the code, but must also modify the copied text in order in order to allow the system to play different audio messages for each specific catch event. Needless to say, this takes valuable programming time away from the application developer and often results in an error-laden application.
It would greatly benefit programmers of interactive speech applications to provide an interface that gives the programmer the option of selecting a specific style, where each style allows the programmer to use specific forms to provide non-static information for each dialog turn. The system could then use this information in a code-generation step to generate the appropriate speech application code for a particular application.
Because of the unique attributes of different interactive voice applications, programmers, when creating code in response to standard catch events, would benefit from having the option to select one of a variety of styles, where the styles range in complexity from simply repeating a prompt to the user, to the playing of different audio messages for each specific catch event.
Because programmers often work in teams, the code generated in interactive speech applications is often passed from one programmer to another for modification. By restricting a programmer to a specific style selected by his predecessor, the ability to efficiently modify a portion of code may be limited. While making a style-selection interface available would provide additional flexibility for programmers, the added ability to seamlessly select, de-select and/or change the style would prove to be of great value in a scenario where multiple programmers and developers share responsibility for the preparation of speech generation code.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and system that provides a programmer of an interactive voice response application with an interface that presents a variety of catch styles, thereby allowing the programmer to selectively choose a style that suits his or her programming needs and, if desired, allows for the recording and playing of specific audio messages in response to standard catch events.